World Cup Group Stage - 1st Round Matches

bosnian_red

Worst scout to ever exist
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Thursday June 11th
Mexico - South Africa (3:00pm kickoff, Mexico City) - 8:00pm GMT
South Korea - Czechia (10:00pm kickoff, Guadalajara) - 3:00am GMT Friday

Friday June 12th
Canada - Bosnia & Herzegovina (3:00pm kickoff, Toronto) - 8:00pm GMT
USA - Paraguay (9:00pm kickoff, Los Angeles) - 2:00am GMT Saturday

Saturday June 13th
Qatar - Switzerland (3:00pm kickoff, San Francisco) - 8:00pm GMT
Brazil - Morocco (6:00pm kickoff, New Jersey) - 11:00pm GMT
Haiti - Scotland (9:00pm kickoff, Boston) - 2:00am GMT Sunday

Sunday June 14th
Australia - Turkiye (midnight/12:00am kickoff, Vancouver) - 5:00am GMT
Germany - Curacao (1:00pm kickoff, Houston) - 6:00pm GMT
Netherlands - Japan (4:00pm kickoff, Dallas) - 9:00pm GMT
Cote D'Ivoire - Ecuador (7:00pm kickoff, Philadelphia) - 12:00am GMT Monday
Sweden - Tunisia (10:00pm kickoff, Monterrey) - 3:00am GMT Monday

Monday June 15th
Spain - Cabo Verde (noon/12:00pm kickoff, Atlanta) - 5:00pm GMT
Belgium - Egypt (3:00pm kickoff, Seattle) - 8:00pm GMT
Saudi Arabia - Uruguay (6:00pm kickoff, Miami) - 11:00pm GMT
Iran - New Zealand (9:00pm kickoff, Los Angeles) - 2:00am GMT Tuesday

Tuesday June 16th
France - Senegal (3:00pm kickoff, New Jersey) - 8:00pm GMT
Iraq - Norway (6:00pm kickoff, Boston) - 11:00pm GMT
Argentina - Algeria (9:00pm kickoff, Kansas City) - 2:00am GMT Wednesday

Wednesday June 17th
Austria - Jordan (midnight/12:00am kickoff, San Francisco) - 5:00am GMT
Portugal - Congo DR (1:00pm kickoff, Houston) - 6:00pm GMT
England - Croatia (4:00pm kickoff, Dallas) - 9:00pm GMT
Ghana - Panama (7:00pm kickoff, Toronto) - 12:00am GMT Thursday
 
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Not a lot of great games in the first round (on paper at least). Netherlands vs Japan will be the one I look forward to most .
 
M7 (Brazil vs Morocco), M11 (Netherlands vs Japan), and M22 (England vs Croatia) are the pick of the lot
 
God, that's a shite round of matches, just as well most of 'em are after my bedtime. Thanks FIFA for the 48 teams. Maybe I'll just skip to the round of 32 and avoid most of the shite US crap.

It's crazy how average the Mexico team is, you'd think a football mad nation with a huge population, rich history, and solid infrastructure would be able to produce better.
 
Massive Spanner said:
God, that's a shite round of matches, just as well most of 'em are after my bedtime. Thanks FIFA for the 48 teams. Maybe I'll just skip to the round of 32 and avoid most of the shite US crap.

It's crazy how average the Mexico team is, you'd think a football mad nation with a huge population, rich history, and solid infrastructure would be able to produce better.
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I don't think the world Cup is for you if you can't get excited about these types of games to be honest. Mexico vs South Africa? South Korea vs Czech? Australia vs Turkey? Ivory coast vs Ecuador? Bosnia vs Canada?

Even ignoring the obvious big matches like France vs the AFCON winners Senegal, England v Croatia, Brazil vs Morocco, Netherlands vs Japan... Lots of class games this week.
 
Massive Spanner said:
God, that's a shite round of matches, just as well most of 'em are after my bedtime. Thanks FIFA for the 48 teams. Maybe I'll just skip to the round of 32 and avoid most of the shite US crap.

It's crazy how average the Mexico team is, you'd think a football mad nation with a huge population, rich history, and solid infrastructure would be able to produce better.
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How is it any more shite than previous tournaments? Why would you only want to see big teams face off really early? Stinks of a part timer football fan.
 
Cut the crap complaining about small Nations, the reasons behind are monkey bizzness alike for sure, but still it's cool to see non traditional teams having a chance in the Big stage.
 
I think it's going to be an awesome tournament, quite excited for so many games (which I won't watch, but it makes the betting we set up with friends more interesting).
 
MarylandMUFan said:
There are usually one or two of those small nations that surprise as well and become darlings of the tournament.
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Yes, sometimes even a total fluke that affects everything, yet even without that, it's still it's cool for the country itself to be there, more if it's a troubled one. A little step to get better too.
 
bosnian_red said:
I don't think the world Cup is for you if you can't get excited about these types of games to be honest. Mexico vs South Africa? South Korea vs Czech? Australia vs Turkey? Ivory coast vs Ecuador? Bosnia vs Canada?

Even ignoring the obvious big matches like France vs the AFCON winners Senegal, England v Croatia, Brazil vs Morocco, Netherlands vs Japan... Lots of class games this week.
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Offside said:
How is it any more shite than previous tournaments? Why would you only want to see big teams face off really early? Stinks of a part timer football fan.
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Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
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Yeah, spot on. As a German, it was painful that we didn’t make it past the group stages two times in a row after winning it in 2014. But that’s also what made the WC so interesting from day 1. This time around? Not sure I’ll even tune into the game vs Curaçao tbh.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue
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Massive Spanner said:
in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
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Massive Spanner said:
Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
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Might end more dull or not. Even CL had quite a number of odd results with small clubs.

In any case there is no other way for smaller NTs be part of it and in the long term improve. Of course more than that should be done, but Elitism svcks on any form.

I've used Rugby Unión as an example, being even worse than Football historically in its Elitism and even now still not entirely embracing a more global game, yet the steps made in such direction prooved to be great in the mid term and now there are way more capable teams around the globe and the sport becoming bigger and more great players appearing from all around the globe.
 
jadajos said:
Yeah, spot on. As a German, it was painful that we didn’t make it past the group stages two times in a row after winning it in 2014. But that’s also what made the WC so interesting from day 1. This time around? Not sure I’ll even tune into the game vs Curaçao
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If anything those two early eliminations in Group stages should at least work the other way around to at least consider that's not a bad thing to give a chance for smaller Nations.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
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Yup, one of the negative aspects of the current setup. They should have retained the 2 through, 2 out even with the newer teams.
 
I wouldn't be so sure that there isn't any jeopardy to the games against the "minnows". Iraq drew to Spain in the build-up, The Netherlands lost to Algeria and needed an 98' minute penalty to beat Uzbekistan, ... Apart from a few standout teams in the wrong sense of the word, there aren't that many pushovers in the tournament. Even those with very small chances will have their set-up ready to make it as difficult as possible for big countries.
 
RobinLFC said:
I wouldn't be so sure that there isn't any jeopardy to the games against the "minnows". Iraq drew to Spain in the build-up, The Netherlands lost to Algeria and needed an 98' minute penalty to beat Uzbekistan, ... Apart from a few standout teams in the wrong sense of the word, there aren't that many pushovers in the tournament. Even those with very small chances will have their set-up ready to make it as difficult as possible for big countries.
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Those friendly games are training sessions.

*this is not a prediction there will be no surprises.
 
Utd heap said:
Those friendly games are training sessions.

*this is not a prediction there will be no surprises.
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Struggling to beat Uzbekistan and losing against Algeria means something, at the very least it points to the fact that they shouldn't even be considered favorites against Japan on Sunday imo. Spain played with most of their reserves against Iraq, agreed, but it rather shows that they're not completely without chance in the WC (although they have a very tough group with Senegal, France and Norway).
 
RobinLFC said:
Struggling to beat Uzbekistan and losing against Algeria means something, at the very least it points to the fact that they shouldn't even be considered favorites against Japan on Sunday imo. Spain played with most of their reserves against Iraq, agreed, but it rather shows that they're not completely without chance in the WC (although they have a very tough group with Senegal, France and Norway).
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Meh, fair enough if you read into it. I wouldnt read a thing.
 
RobinLFC said:
I wouldn't be so sure that there isn't any jeopardy to the games against the "minnows". Iraq drew to Spain in the build-up, The Netherlands lost to Algeria and needed an 98' minute penalty to beat Uzbekistan, ... Apart from a few standout teams in the wrong sense of the word, there aren't that many pushovers in the tournament. Even those with very small chances will have their set-up ready to make it as difficult as possible for big countries.
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I believe the jeopardy being referred to is not getting out of the group. There is virtually no risk whatsoever for the top teams in getting knocked out.
 
TheGame said:
I believe the jeopardy being referred to is not getting out of the group. There is virtually no risk whatsoever for the top teams in getting knocked out.
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Yeah that's true, you usually get one big country crashing out or undeperforming in the group stage though, even if it means going through as a best 3th this time around, that results in a big tie against a first-placed team in the Round of 32 already.

I'd rather look at it as "a few nice games to look forward to in the group stage with a proper WC feeling to it" and then the tournament really starting as from the KO stages, much like the CL these days. In that sense it's a shame that there's this many teams and the group stage is devalued quite a lot, but it is what it is unfortunately. Don't like it either but it fits the "more games more money" shift and not really a surprise coming from FIFA.
 
TheGame said:
I believe the jeopardy being referred to is not getting out of the group. There is virtually no risk whatsoever for the top teams in getting knocked out.
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That's true. But for example if Brazil win their group, the Dutch can't afford a mistake because finishing second means Brazil-Netherlands in a R32. That's very early for a match like that. So it's not like there's no stakes at all either.
 
TheGame said:
I believe the jeopardy being referred to is not getting out of the group. There is virtually no risk whatsoever for the top teams in getting knocked out.
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Let's imagine that a Top dog finds itself in the third place, because like every WC shows and @RobinLFC said, "surprises" are always present in WCs, suddenly the KO stages will be quite fecked up.

Also it's not that big of an issue even if someone puts 27 against Curacao, imagine being from there and be in a WC, it's fecking awesome. Imagine even if they draw or even win a game.

Also Top dogs might also give more chances to youngsters, since the risk of injuries increases with more games too, all in all, it all sounds more like a snobish complain than anything.
 
Ramos said:
That's true. But for example if Brazil win their group, the Dutch can't afford a mistake because finishing second means Brazil-Netherlands in a R32. That's very early for a match like that. So it's not like there's no stakes at all either.
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Yeah its going to make jostling for position fairly intriguing. I get the new Champs League comparison but you cant really do that there and you have multiple dead matches.

This is just 3. Cant take risks...win your group.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
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Makes it a brilliant celebration of football for millions of people all around the world in smaller countries who can celebrate their deserved achievement of teaching the world Cup.

If you're only interested in the big games, then yeah just tune into the knockout phase, but the world Cup is also about just a global football celebration and there's a lot of beauty in that. Yes lots of the games will be between teams who aren't thinking of winning it, but there's a ton of jeopardy in the group for the teams outside of the top 8 or so in the world who yeah you'd expect will calmly go through. There's a lot more to football than the big 8 countries though.
 
Basically - football is for everyone, not just fecking England, Brazil, Spain, etc. there's a lot more to the world Cup than the handful of favourites. Let's not get all elitist here.

Also - don't underestimate the heat impact. I fully expect quite a few upsets for players not used to playing in this heat and humidity.
 
bosnian_red said:
Basically - football is for everyone, not just fecking England, Brazil, Spain, etc. there's a lot more to the world Cup than the handful of favourites. Let's not get all elitist here.

Also - don't underestimate the heat impact. I fully expect quite a few upsets for players not used to playing in this heat and humidity.
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You have gone a bit extreme the other way now, it is supposed to be the pinnacle of football.

Anyway I can see pros and cons.

On the heat thing, its over played. Only effects about 6 stadiums and a few of those have air con.
 
Oranges038 said:
Enter every country in the world into an FA cup style open draw, from the last 32 play the knock out games at a host nation. That's still about 30 games.
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Better to have an open draw, then at least we might get some decent match ups in the first 50 games.

If we are going to have a ridiculous number of teams as we have here, just get rid of the seeding.
 
Fobal said:
Let's imagine that a Top dog finds itself in the third place, because like every WC shows and @RobinLFC said, "surprises" are always present in WCs, suddenly the KO stages will be quite fecked up.

Also it's not that big of an issue even if someone puts 27 against Curacao, imagine being from there and be in a WC, it's fecking awesome. Imagine even if they draw or even win a game.

Also Top dogs might also give more chances to youngsters, since the risk of injuries increases with more games too, all in all, it all sounds more like a snobish complain than anything.
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And that happens often with best thirds.

1990: Argentina got to the final
1994: Italy (the worst of the four thirds) got to the final
Euro 2016: Portugal won it
 
Massive Spanner said:
Because there's basically no jeopardy to these games, almost no risk of a big gun getting knocked out, and the extra 16 teams are mostly cannon fodder.

Obviously my post was somewhat tongue in cheek, I'll tune in for a fair few of those, but you can't deny the 48 team format makes the group stages far more dull. Exact same thing happened when the Euros went from 16 > 24.
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Well yeah, I agree with the format. But the World Cup was never like the Euros where you basically had only the best teams there and constant big clashes early on. The Euros being 24 teams is worse than the World Cup being 48 in my opinion. There was a time when the Euros was 8 teams and World Cup was 24.
 
There's also this potentially awkward situation in Group J where placing second could give you a tougher opponent (winner of Spain's group) than placing third (winner of Canada/Switzerland group). And group J plays the third match last too.

The 48 teams set-up forcing the best thirds system isn't ideal at all.
 
Fobal said:
Let's imagine that a Top dog finds itself in the third place, because like every WC shows and @RobinLFC said, "surprises" are always present in WCs, suddenly the KO stages will be quite fecked up.

Also it's not that big of an issue even if someone puts 27 against Curacao, imagine being from there and be in a WC, it's fecking awesome. Imagine even if they draw or even win a game.

Also Top dogs might also give more chances to youngsters, since the risk of injuries increases with more games too, all in all, it all sounds more like a snobish complain than anything.
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Bit of a strange take this, any criticism and we are meant to be snobbish! We all want a tournament with some excitement. In previous tournaments we've had big teams crash out of group stages, everyone routes for the smaller teams. Having some blanket view that everything is 'awesome' is somewhat strange.
 
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